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Answers to fundamental questions about pattern and process in the ecological and human world often comes from within the boundaries of one discipline or another, neglecting the relationships between the ecological and social systems. One manifestation of these relationships, which also forms the focus of this study, is conflicts over how to use urban green areas. Various scholars imply that civil society organisations and individual citizens can play an important role in articulating the ecological and social values that exist in much disputed green areas, and can therefore create a “protective story” to prevent exploitation. Following these implications and using a social network or social capital perspective, this study investigates a current conflict concerning Årstafältet, or the Årsta field, in Stockholm, which is suggested for exploitation, and focuses on the civic actors’ ability to participate in influencing the future of this green area. Although the conflict is still ongoing, the actors in the case study have at the present stage not been successful in protecting their green area. The results from interviews and participatory observations show the importance of accessing useful artefacts to incorporate into a protective story, and being able to present the artefacts in appropriate social arenas something that has been a limitation for the actors of Årstafältet. The actor groups’ ability to balance bridging and bonding social capital is also a factor that can have affected their success. The study further reveals a lack of democracy in the decision making process and suggest that public actors impede the participation of civic actors in contributing in the planning of urban green areas rather than facilitate their participation. In addition to highlighting some of the social and political factors that affect the emergence of green spatial structures in urban landscapes this study also establishes that the ecological perspective has been neglected in the case of Årstafältet. Following the results of the study a contemporary approach of studying urban ecology which includes attention on the mixture of social, political and ecological perspectives is encouraged for future research.

Apis mellifera L. is the only commercially cultivated bee species in Bangladesh nowadays and has been practicing for migratory beekeeping since 1990. Notably, without taking initiatives to improve the bee stocks, intensified beekeeping has been making the species vulnerable to different threats of diseases, pests and inbreeding depression. Reproductive potentiality of the queens has been declining severely. The investigation was carried out to diagnose present problems regarding reproductive potentiality of the queen bees and finding out the possible solutions. Firstly, 56 numbers of naturally mated queens (Apis mellifera L.) were collected from problematic and non-problematic hives from three districts of Bangladesh. Samples were weighed, body length and thorax width were measured, and dissected to study spermathecae appearance. Average queen body weight (160.75±3.65 mg) was found much lower than the earlier studies in different countries. Moreover, 32.33% spermathecae of the queens were found poor in appearance. Again, 3 different queen rearing and mating procedures were applied in 12 replications each: naturally mated queen (NM), grafted and naturally mated queen (GNM) and grafted and artificially inseminated queen (AIQ). NM and GNM queens were allowed to mate naturally where AIQ queens were inseminated artificially in the laboratory. Interestingly, GNM (196.65±3.13 mg) and AIQ(196.55±2.41 mg) queens were significantly heavier than the NM (159.07±6.94 mg) queens. Likewise, their spermathecae radius, respective workers, drones, brood occupation area showed much better strength than the NM queens, though, latency period of AIQ queens were higher. Since grafted queens were reared with good larvae and implemented in artificial queen cups with increased brood support, hence that could make the queens heavier and reproductively more potential, whereas NM queens were left to grow naturally and found less potential. The findings will encourage beekeepers for practicing grafting procedure as the better queen rearing procedure in field condition. However, the procedure of AIQ queens also could be used for stock improvement and bee research because of its control mating system.